[HN Gopher] My journey for dual displays with my M1 Pro Mac (2021)
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My journey for dual displays with my M1 Pro Mac (2021)
Author : walterbell
Score : 58 points
Date : 2022-03-04 15:12 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.derekseaman.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.derekseaman.com)
| wataban wrote:
| hammock wrote:
| To add another data point for anyone looking for help- I
| connected two Displayport monitors to my M1 macbook with a
| Plugable Displaylink hub. The hub I chose also has 2 HDMI ports
| if I ever got new monitors, plus 6 USB-A ports, an ethernet port
| and an audio jack.
|
| What it doesn't do, is power your laptop. I don't believe any
| Displaylink hub can do that.
|
| $159 and Plugable has other port configurations to choose from as
| well:
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08B6CZ29Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...
| l30n4da5 wrote:
| friend of mine is running three displays off a displayLink hub
| on his new m1 mac pro. seems displaylink is a really good
| choice, at least.
| costcofries wrote:
| I've had great success with dual monitors using DisplayLink
| Manager, really handy little app -
| https://www.synaptics.com/products/displaylink-graphics/down...
| blakesterz wrote:
| Has anyone else switched from using 2 monitors to just using one
| big extra wide one? I've found it to be just as good as two, if
| not better. Maybe a little more expensive than buying two, but
| it's been worth it.
| bombcar wrote:
| On my MacBook Pro I have two ultrawides, and two HDPI 4ks, it's
| nice.
| protomyth wrote:
| The Dell UltraSharp U4919DW is 32x9 with a 5120 x 1440 at 60Hz.
| I works with the MacBook as long as you do not use the HDMI
| port. I have mine hooked up either via a Thunderbolt 4 dock or
| a USB-C to DisplayPort cable.
|
| You can test you got the full resolution by doing:
| system_profiler SPDisplaysDataType | awk '/Resolution/{print
| $2, $3, $4}'
| kitsunesoba wrote:
| I haven't, for a few reasons.
|
| - The logical "partitioning" of workspace between displays is a
| nice tool for organization, particularly when combined with
| Spaces/virtual desktops
|
| - I work from home, so my main display does double duty between
| work and games, which is a problem with the latter with many
| games having bad or lackluster ultrawide support
|
| - Ultrawides restrict display selection quite considerably and
| often require concessions on things like color performance,
| backlight bleed, pixel response times (especially curved
| ultrawides, which seem to all use VA panels which are known for
| smearing and slow response times)
| nixpulvis wrote:
| > The logical "partitioning" of workspace between displays is
| a nice tool for organization, particularly when combined with
| Spaces/virtual desktops
|
| Use a better window manager.
| kitsunesoba wrote:
| That wouldn't really work for me. The physical separation
| (and different display angle that brings) and ability to
| set different wallpapers per workspace per monitor are
| important and can't be reproduced with a window manager.
|
| I also just don't like micromanaging my window arrangement
| or having the WM try to do it automatically (and usually
| get it wrong).
| nixpulvis wrote:
| That's a good point. I personally like having one
| horizontal and one vertical setup.
| OJFord wrote:
| > I also just don't like micromanaging my window
| arrangement or having the WM try to do it automatically
| (and usually get it wrong).
|
| How is that solved by adding a monitor? If I used two (I
| don't any more) I would still use a (better than macOS
| default) window manager.
| oarsinsync wrote:
| > I would still use a (better than macOS default) window
| manager.
|
| What are some of the alternatives that you would
| recommend?
| kitsunesoba wrote:
| Both an extra monitor and an ultrawide add more space for
| windows, but the naturally partitioned nature of a second
| display combined with virtual desktops also provides low
| effort organization.
|
| So in my typical usage, secondary/tertiary/etc windows go
| into purposed virtual desktops on the second monitor --
| e.g. one virtual desktop for documentation, another for
| chat, etc. This allows me to swap out the sets of less
| important windows independent of the main display's
| workspace, with practically zero management overhead
| (just assign apps to virtual desktops during initial
| setup).
|
| The extent of third party window management I use is
| Moom, which I use to snap maybe 3-5 windows across my
| entire workspace into specific locations/sizes. Something
| that emulates a Linux tiling WM like Amethyst would drive
| me insane.
| wil421 wrote:
| I switched to an ultrawide and will never look back. My last
| setup was 2 monitors. Having 2 1440p monitors basically stuck
| together to make an ultrawide is a dream come true. It's 100%
| worth the switch.
|
| My M1 Air runs my ultrawide at 60hz and is buttery smooth.
| turtlebits wrote:
| IMO, 1440p is too low of a pixel density for productivity. My
| first 1440p monitor was 10 years ago. If only 2160p
| ultrawides weren't prohibitively expensive.
| wil421 wrote:
| Agreed, 4K is my favorite resolution. I was going to add
| above that the only way I'd buy another monitor was if it
| was a 4K or higher ultrawide.
| mattgreenrocks wrote:
| I've long preferred one large monitor. Which ultrawide do you
| have?
| nsxwolf wrote:
| I have an Acer XR382CQK which is 3840x1600 and can do 75hz.
| I can't live without it now.
| wil421 wrote:
| I bought this one but it was overkill for my needs. I think
| the model below this one is a better buy. They were out
| when I bought it.
|
| https://www.microcenter.com/product/639902/lg-34gp950g-34-2
| k...
| mojzu wrote:
| I've been using the LG C1 48", it's a little too tall so the
| upper portion of the screen rarely sees use outside of full
| screen video/games, but otherwise it's great. Although my
| opinion may change if it starts burning in significantly
| jasoneckert wrote:
| I use an ultrawide monitor alongside a vertically-oriented
| monitor (for code review) - I find this setup fits my personal
| and professional needs perfectly!
| rayiner wrote:
| I like my single 32" at home better than my dual 27" at work.
| bentcorner wrote:
| I don't have experience with this on a Mac but I've been trying
| this recently on Windows. Window snapping and edge-of-screen
| behaviors make using multiple monitors slightly better than
| using a single monitor that is just as large.
|
| Fancyzones makes this much more tolerable but misses a few
| minor scenarios.
|
| I replaced two 1440p monitors with a single ultrawide and
| complemented it with a tablet on my desk showing hdmi through
| deskreen, usually showing a chat window. I guess technically I
| still have two displays but it takes up less desk space
| overall.
|
| On the positive side the displays are centered in front of me
| better and I can fiddle with the tablet placement much more
| easily than a real monitor. I've experienced neck strain
| working for extended periods with windows on the edge of the
| farthest dual monitor.
| hereforphone wrote:
| I did this and I agree that it's a better solution (for me).
| Keeping your neck twisted to the side for long periods of time
| is not good. With an extra wide monitor you can pull over
| windows to the center if you want to focus on them for any
| significant period of time.
| colinmhayes wrote:
| Having a single monitor messes up macOS's virtual desktop
| environment. Much easier to swipe between fullscreen apps with
| two seperate desktops.
| TrueGeek wrote:
| I love the single ultra wide over two monitors. The only
| problem I have is when presenting. I need to show several apps
| at once but if I share my entire screen it obviously looks
| horrible for everyone else. The solution is to open my MacBook
| and share from there. Not a huge deal, but a bit annoying.
| jdesmond wrote:
| I wrote this[0] post on how I use OBS to share a 1080p sized
| portion of my upper left ultrawide monitor through Microsoft
| Teams. If you can share just a specific window, then this
| should work with google meet.
|
| https://jamesdesmond.org/posts/teams-screenshare-mac/
| [deleted]
| yurishimo wrote:
| I have a shortcut setup in my window manager app to resize
| the current window to 1920x1080 specifically for screen
| sharing.
| Tagbert wrote:
| By "window" do you mean "display"?
|
| I wish that when you shared an app window, Zoom would let
| you scale that to fit the full screen share. That way you
| could present a reasonable image of a window to viewers
| while using an ultra-wide monitor.
| yurishimo wrote:
| No, I mean the window. Usually I'm sharing chrome or a
| code editor via zoom.
| n42 wrote:
| Zoom lets you share a region of your screen if you click the
| advanced tab when sharing.
| TrueGeek wrote:
| Yeah, sadly we use Google which does not.
| salmonlogs wrote:
| I share a tab/window and resize that window to be approx
| 16:10. Shows up nicely for others and I can still see the
| rest of my screen.
|
| If I had another window open for chat/notes/emails I can
| still have that at half my ultrawide and just deal with a bit
| of overlap on my end
| jdesmond wrote:
| I did the same but not being able to share a terminal and a
| browser window at the same time is tough.
|
| Ended up using OBS and sharing the obs preview window
| instead. This lets me add fun gifs and overlays as well to
| my screen for loading or success.
| jhardcastle wrote:
| I have had a 43" monitor at work and at home for a while, and
| the solution I've used throughout the pandemic has been to
| share only a region of the screen, or to share a single
| application or window, which I often shrink down to a
| "laptop" size" in order to share my screen with colleagues.
| That still leaves plenty of real estate around the "shared"
| window that is not visible to others, but is useful to me.
| shamskazi wrote:
| I switched from 2 21.5" 1080p monitors to 1 40" 4k TV. At first
| it felt comically huge, but I found it great for both media
| consumption and working on huge documents. If I had a larger
| desk, I'd move to an AORUS FO48U.
| 015a wrote:
| I sometimes run an ultrawide (3440x1440) off my M1 Air. It
| works... ok. MacOS doesn't output more than 50hz, and every
| hour or so the display will flicker off and on. I haven't
| decided if its an issue with the M1, or an issue with the hub
| I'm using, but its not a big enough concern for me to justify
| investigating much further.
|
| I personally feel that 21:9 ultrawides aren't quite as good as
| dual 16:9 displays for productivity. But they're fine. My
| biggest complaint is that most people would reasonable center
| their monitor on the desk. If you run 2x16:9, you can have one
| centered, and one off to the side, which allows you to mostly
| look straight forward and have a natural primary/secondary
| setup.
|
| At 21:9, this setup is weirder; either you size your primary
| window (browser, code editor, etc) to ~16:9, left-or-right-
| align it, then you have to slightly crane your neck, or you
| center-align it and you're left with slivers of screen real-
| estate to the left-and-right. Or you can shrink the primary
| center window, approaching maybe a max of 7:9 for all three
| windows, which is maybe rarely useful for some applications. Or
| you can maximize the window, and in most applications you get
| tons of unused space. Or you can physically offset the monitor
| on your desk, which looks weird. There's just no solution that
| works "great" especially given these displays are oftentimes at
| a small premium over 2x16:9.
|
| I think something like the Samsung Odyssey CRG9 would be much
| higher productivity in ultrawide, with its 32:9 aspect ratio.
| There, you could run a ~16:9 centered primary window, and still
| have ~8:9 canvases to the left and right, which is enough
| horizontal estate to comfortably have a terminal, Spotify,
| browser, etc. Its also relatively affordable (~$1100), though
| given you can find solid 1440p 27" monitors for $200-$300,
| you're effectively cross-shopping 3x16:9 displays. Still
| definitely a "luxury" buy. Its ultimately unclear to me that it
| would be _better_ , and not just "differently similar".
| turtlebits wrote:
| I think it's your dock. I have an LG 3440x1440 (and a Dell at
| work) that works fine over USB-C directly to my M1 Air.
| vocoda wrote:
| I tested my 3440x1440 monitor with M1 Air. I found that
| fonts are rendered without anti aliasing and looked not
| good at all. Do you have similar issues?
| paulmd wrote:
| I have 3440x1440 and it works fine - I run 100 hz on my work
| MBP. Which is Intel, granted, but 3440x1440 is strictly less
| than 4k, and we don't see an epidemic of people noticing that
| their 4k monitor is running at 30 hz on their M1 MBPs.
|
| 50 hz happens to be the limit of hdmi 1.4b (at 3440x1440), it
| sounds like somewhere in your chain you have something that
| is running at legacy speeds. Could be your dock, could be
| your monitor, could be an active adapter cable.
|
| I'd start by making sure you're running DisplayPort and not
| HDMI. HDMI is more or less a "legacy" port these days, as far
| as workstation usage is concerned. And unlike DP there is no
| embedded HDMI support in USB-C Alt Mode so any sort of USB-C
| to HDMI adapter needs an active converter - which may be your
| hdmi 1.4 bottleneck.
|
| (note that the "passive" HDMI mode that full-size
| displayports offer - aka DP++ - is an _optional_ part of the
| spec. It 's so widely implemented on full-size ports that
| most people don't realize it's optional, but embedded
| DisplayPort implementations like eDP or USB-C Alt Mode,
| Thunderbolt, etc don't implement this feature.)
| hughrr wrote:
| I have gone one step past that. The really wide monitor gave me
| a neck ache as I'd persistently find myself wedging stuff at
| one end. It was also 1440p which is crap.
|
| I now have a single 27" 4k monitor which has better text
| rendering and no neck ache.
|
| I will buy a 27" 5k if Apple sell one.
| fotta wrote:
| Apple sells the LG Ultrafine 5k which is 27". It's not Apple
| made but iirc they worked with LG to design it. I really like
| mine, the high dpi is fantastic. I have a 27" 1440p next to
| it that is pretty much relegated to being a Spotify screen
| because looking at text on it feels vastly inferior to the
| LG.
| cehrlich wrote:
| I'll switch as soon as High DPI ultrawide is a thing.
|
| I know there's the LG 5Kx2K monitor, but MacOS can't drive it
| at 6880x2880 which is the scaling option I'd want - It's less
| pixels in total than a Pro Display XDR, but I guess their logic
| is "if (width > 6k) { don't allow }"
| dfsegoat wrote:
| I switched to a 34" UW UHD display, from 2x 24" - I definitely
| prefer it.
| natnatenathan wrote:
| Similar journey, but I went from two down to one 27" 4k. I
| found that I was getting distracted by all the extra open
| windows and time spent arranging them. Maybe it is just because
| I'm getting older, but I've found the key (for me) to
| productivity is getting back to doing just one thing at a time.
| It has taken a lot of discipline and a little bit of creativity
| to achieve this, but I think my productivity has improved.
| protomyth wrote:
| I really don't like dual displays, but I will say the Dell
| UltraSharp U4919DW is amazing hooked to my MacBook. The 32x9 is
| effectively two displays and it works very well as long as you do
| not try to use the HDMI port. Still not sure, why.
|
| I'm hoping someone does a true 4K version (well 2 4Ks side by
| side I guess)
| mastax wrote:
| It's kind-of crazy that macOS still doesn't support DisplayPort
| Multi Stream Transport - the ability to drive multiple displays
| with a single DisplayPort cable. That kind of thing fits Apple's
| ethos very well, and they are heavily involved in the DisplayPort
| spec and support.
| bombcar wrote:
| My MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017) has two 34UM88s chained on a
| single Thunderbolt port _somehow_.
| lloeki wrote:
| That's TB daisy chaining, not DP's multi thing
| krnlpnc wrote:
| While on the topic of Mac displays, is anyone aware of a method
| to enable or mimic the OS brightness keys/controls with a non-
| apple display?
|
| That's been my main gripe so far with an external display, that
| and also MacOS not allowing rotation of an inbuilt display.
| cosmotic wrote:
| There are a number of github projects for both MacOS and
| Windows that send DCC brightness signals to monitors
| https://github.com/topics/brightness-control
| lloeki wrote:
| lunar, monitorcontrol
|
| https://lunar.fyi/
|
| https://github.com/MonitorControl/MonitorControl
| jtthe13 wrote:
| And displaybuddy https://setapp.com/apps/displaybuddy
| api wrote:
| I got a regular M1 and then realized it couldn't support dual
| monitors, so I just sold my two monitors and bought an ultra
| wide. It's nicer anyway.
| jurmous wrote:
| It is possible to connect multiple screens to regular M1 Macs
| with DisplayLink:
|
| https://plugable.com/blogs/news/how-to-connect-more-external...
| lmilcin wrote:
| I am running 2 external 27" 4k HDMI displays (LG 27UK650_600)
| with no problem on my M1 Macbook Pro.
|
| I am using them either with the Macbook closed or with all three
| screens at the same time.
|
| One of the monitors is connected using built in HDMI and this one
| works super stable.
|
| The other is connected through Belkin adapter that I bought from
| Apple. It sometimes experiences problems (it shows noise) and has
| to be disconnected and reconnected. This usually happens only
| after the monitor has been turned off for the night but the
| laptop was on (I keep it on due to various experiments I am
| running).
|
| Overall I am super happy.
| radicality wrote:
| I'm using the fully specced M1 Pro Max with the laptop screen, 6k
| Pro Display XDR connected directly and 2x4k Dell monitors
| connected via the Caldigit thunderbolt hub (HDMI). It's working
| great, haven't had any major issues, the newest M1 MacBooks are
| quite impressive.
|
| Apple's default screen management tooling is awful though so I
| can highly recommend SwitchResX for that.
|
| Also have a TB4 dock from Sonnettech (3 TB4 inputs / one output),
| to which I have a 10Gb/s qnap tb3 adapter plugged in. (The qnap
| works great btw if you are on the lookout for 10Gb/s networking
| for your MacBook. Make sure to get the sfp+ and not the ethernet
| version)
| tolle wrote:
| I mean did he try to just daisy chain them? He claims that he
| wanted to use DisplayPort 1.4 for connectivity. But the monitors
| do support daisy chaining over thunderbolt, and he also states
| that. But why not daisy chain? I mean I get that it's frustrating
| to get the thing working with DisplayPort, dongles and docks. But
| the best solution was right in front of him?
| jamesfmilne wrote:
| I believe macOS on Apple Silicon or Intel does not support
| DisplayPort MST (Multi-Stream Transport) which is required for
| daisy-chaining to work.
| jsjohnst wrote:
| MacOS supports MST mirror (which imho is mostly useless
| outside niche uses), but not MST extend.
| tolle wrote:
| Over Thunderbolt at least. I imagine it might subpar on non
| supported stuff.
| ToniCipriani wrote:
| I suppose it's the common knowledge that Mac OS doesn't support
| MST properly and author assumed it applied to Thunderbolt docks
| as well. This is on Apple for not implementing that, because
| it's not the hardware. Intel Macbooks work perfectly fine with
| regular DP Alt Mode docks in Boot Camp.
| tolle wrote:
| Sure. But it's like in the marketing pics even. It works over
| thunderbolt. And that's what they've said.
| DIVx0 wrote:
| off topic but in a similar Mac and display thing. I have an LG
| UltraFine 5k monitor that I love. I also have two MBPs, one for
| work (2019) and a personal 16" M1 Max.
|
| The monitor works great plugged directly into either machine
| however if I try to use any sort of DP 1.4 switch both machines
| will only see my 5k monitor as 4k. I've tried various cables, all
| of which say they are DP 1.4 certified.
|
| Anyone in this boat with me?
| kitsunesoba wrote:
| Surprised there was no mention of CalDigit docks. One of my desks
| has an old TS3+ that drives 2x 2560x1440 monitors perfectly from
| an M1 Pro machine, and it was rock solid when used with older
| Intel Macs and Windows PCs too. It's Thunderbolt 3, but CalDigit
| recently released a TB4 version.
|
| I haven't yet tried dual displays with it but my other desk is
| using a Lenovo ThinkPad Thunderbolt 4 Dock and it's also been
| solid.
|
| I suspect that a lot of the more mass market oriented docks cut
| corners and don't implement specs quite to full compliance which
| leads to weirdness like seen in the article.
| _6n1 wrote:
| When I upgraded to an M1 MacBook Pro, my CalDigit TS3+ no
| longer supported dual external monitors and I had to buy a new
| dock: https://www.caldigit.com/apple-silicon-mac-and-caldigit-
| dock...
| kitsunesoba wrote:
| That's because regular M1's can only support two displays. In
| the case of MacBooks, that's the internal display and one
| external.
|
| M1 Pro and Max do not share this limitation.
| voisin wrote:
| Apparently DisplayLink adapters get around this limitation.
| evgen wrote:
| Sounds like you didn't do enough research. I am using a
| CalDigit TS3+ with 2x4K and 1x1080p external displays on a M1
| Macbook Pro to write this comment. It is not difficult at all
| to do and took less than five minutes of searching for me to
| find the guides and instruction videos when I decided to
| upgrade my Macbook to Apple Silicon.
| [deleted]
| dimgl wrote:
| Using a CalDigit right now to power two monitors on an M1
| Macbook Pro. It doesn't go above 60hz (my monitors are 165hz)
| but I'm still happy with it. Has an ethernet port too, which is
| great.
| emeraldd wrote:
| There was a period of time where the TS3+ was completely
| unavailable. Our IT people were saying that the manufacturer
| couldn't get parts to build them. :( I was lucky enough to get
| one before that happened and can say it works great. I'm using
| a SUW49DA from Viotek. The only issue I have is that something
| keeps waking the monitor up overnight but not sending a video
| signal. This eventually causes the monitor to shutdown and stop
| waking up until it's physically power cycled ( i.e.
| unplug/replugin). Otherwise, it's been great.
| bombcar wrote:
| Early on especially almost _all_ of the docks had the exact
| same chip on the inside.
| Gatsky wrote:
| I had persistent problems with mouse jitter on just one external
| monitor with the M1 Air. The problem was fixed with betterDummy.
| I mean, this is pretty disappointing, and wasted a lot of my
| time. Lucky the M1 macs are so good in every other way.
| robin_reala wrote:
| (Unrelated to the subject, but this website is a perfect example
| of why reader mode is a required feature for web browsers.)
| grork wrote:
| I think I'm a unicorn. 14" M1 Max, triple displays, albeit with
| two cables. We also have an M1 Pro in the house w/ CalDigit TS3
| (non-plus), which is driving dual 4k's without issue.
|
| I'm confused why the author didn't just purchase one of the
| cornucopia of Thunderbolt 3 (or 4) docks that do everything
| including display output.
|
| Triple config (M1 Max): - OWC Thunderbolt 4 dock, connected to 2
| 4k displays, network, speakers, USB devices - 5k display
| connected direct to the mac
|
| Dual Config (M1 Pro): - CalDigit TS3 dock, connected to 2 4k
| displays, speakers, ethernet, USB devices
|
| Works perfectly, and we have no complaints about either config.
|
| Why Is the 5k direct connect? Because there aren't any TB docks
| that support 3x displays when pushing > 4k; I'm unclear if it's
| technically possible.
|
| I had previously run triple displays on a 13" Intel MBP using an
| eGPU. I wrote about that journey here:
| https://www.codevoid.net/ruminations/2020/09/27/three-displa...
| lholden wrote:
| It's possible the author is unaware that there are cables that
| have a USB-C (TB4) connector on one end and a DisplayPort
| connector on the other. This should directly support running
| DisplayPort 1.4 off just the dock they purchased without
| additional dongles. (Which would also work with the OWC TB4
| dock you mention).
|
| Possibly they had a specific need for actual DisplayPort
| _ports_ on the dock though, and because they specifically
| wanted DisplayPort 1.4, that ruled out TB3 docks.
|
| How do you like that OWC dock? It looks pretty nice. I also
| noticed that CalDigit has successor to your TS3 that looks
| pretty nice too.
| grork wrote:
| I'm very happy with the OWC dock -- it's been rock solid, and
| in the eGPU/Intel config allowed single cable by daisy
| chaining the eGPU off the dock. I had a similar experience
| with their ThunderBolt hub (which is just 3 TB4 outs, 1 TB4
| in).
|
| I've theorized for a while that the OWC, Razer, Belkin, and
| Kensington TB4 docks are all the same (Razer sacrificed a USB
| port for RGB) -- they have the same basic layout, and same
| basic capabilities. The CalDigit TS4 looks like a different
| design, adding some more ports.
|
| I have a friend with various TB docks w/ Intel Mac + eGPU,
| and have experienced a consistent issue when using a
| secondary USB-C DAC for audio. I haven't, but if that's your
| scenario, might be worth a pause.
| rtsao wrote:
| Your assumption is correct. Those docks are all based on
| the Goodway DBD1100 [1]. When I was researching which dock
| to purchase myself, I came across this comprehensive list
| [2] of Thunderbolt docks which was super informative.
|
| [1] http://www.goodway.com.tw/prodimg/edm/DBD1100.pdf
|
| [2] https://dancharblog.wordpress.com/2021/02/05/usb4-tb4-d
| ocks/
| jsjohnst wrote:
| > Because there aren't any TB docks that support 3x displays
| when pushing > 4k; I'm unclear if it's technically possible.
|
| It's not technically possible given the bandwidth available on
| a TB3/TB4 port. 5K display requires 22Gbps, the port overall is
| limited to 40Gbps, so not possible to get more than one on a
| single cable. Due to the way TB uses the available lanes in the
| cable, it's also not possible to my knowledge to support a
| USB-C 4K monitor daisy chained off a 5K monitor either even
| though there's sufficient bandwidth (22 + 15 < 40) to do so.
|
| Thunderbolt 5 w/ it's supposed 80Gbps support will change that.
| n42 wrote:
| my caldigit dock "works perfectly". it consistently requires
| plug and unplug, opening laptop lid to unlock then unplugging
| and waiting and replugging then closing laptop lid, trying
| different usb-c port, and having to reboot to support higher
| than 60hz refresh rates. perfectly.
| mshaler wrote:
| Exactly my M1 MBA 4K external display experience: "works
| perfectly."
| grork wrote:
| I have heard from friends that the TS3+ is slightly less
| reliable than the TS3. Initially -- 2017-ish -- we had
| challenges with the monitors (Dell's) being weird. We
| updated the firmware on the monitor (no fix), and updated
| the cables to newer DP cables (Fixed it).
|
| YMMV, of course.
| droopyEyelids wrote:
| Dell did not make a thunderbolt monitor in 2017. I'm
| still not sure if they do. You might be referring to
| running DisplayPort over USB 3 (with a type-c connector)
|
| USB 3 video is a troublesome way to connect a monitor,
| with a lot of vendor incompatible techniques for
| signaling sleep/wake, charging, and obscure limitations
| on resolution/refresh. For example, for years Dell stated
| that their USB C monitors were not compatible with Apple
| devices.
|
| Thunderbolt 3 seems far more reliable, in my experience.
| superkuh wrote:
| >However, I ran into a number of (firmware?) compatibility issues
| with Thunderbolt docks and dongles that made the journey harder
| than anticipated.
|
| The advertising and hype kind of masks this issue. The reality of
| the new Mac architecture is that it is a "gaming console"
| compared to a normal PC. It's hyper optimized for a specific type
| of use and cuts corners in implementing hardware protocols and IO
| because there's no need for the average apple customer. As long
| as you only use the M1 console how it was intended it's amazing
| and fast. But attempt to do anything outside the normal with it
| and the console's glaring hardware short-cuts come to light.
| jdlshore wrote:
| If you're going to make claims like this, you should back them
| up. What hardware shortcuts were taken, specifically, and how
| do they relate to the topic at hand?
| dachryn wrote:
| thats just blatantly false claims. At least document those
| supposed hardware short-cuts then.
|
| The main problem is that specs nowadays have become
| meaningless. Thunderbolt has so many variations, same with
| displayport and hdmi and usb. Anything in the chain can choose
| to embed whatever spec in whatever way they want. Its almost
| impossible to predict upfront if someting will work out of the
| box or not, especially with things like docks and dongles.
| jsjohnst wrote:
| > Thunderbolt has so many variations
|
| Actually, Thunderbolt doesn't, where as the others are
| definitely true.
| superkuh wrote:
| Inability to boot exclusively off an external hard drive for
| one.
|
| https://eclecticlight.co/2021/02/10/external-boot-disks-
| stil... , https://tidbits.com/2021/05/27/an-m1-mac-cant-boot-
| from-an-e...
|
| This is a very common thing that all PCs can do and you'd
| expect a top end ($$$$) laptop to be able to do. But because
| of proprietary choices in the boot process M1 consoles can't.
| jmuguy wrote:
| Its best to assume that Apple just wants everyone to use a single
| external monitor with their notebooks. Anytime you go beyond
| that, bad things start to happen.
|
| I had a 2017 MacBook Pro and two 27 inch 4k monitors. I connected
| these through a variety of different dongles and configurations
| but always had a similar issue - after being in use for a while,
| no matter what I was doing, the system started to thermal
| throttle to the point of becoming unusable.
|
| After many hours of hair pulling I discovered that using display
| scaling was the issue. Apparently using anything beyond the
| "default for display" option was taxing the GPU, which causes
| heat, which then heats the rest of the system to the point of it
| throttling the CPU. When I finally realized this I moved to using
| an eGPU. So basically something like 700 bucks for a Razer Core
| eGPU and AMD video card to function as a dock. Oh and cherry on
| top is the Razer Core's NIC doesn't work in macOS, Razer knows
| this and isn't planning on fixing it.
|
| I was really excited about the M1 systems but I absolutely do not
| want to go through the hell of figuring out how to get two
| displays working. Particularly considering that I can't just
| sidestep the issue by using my eGPU since those aren't supported.
| GeekyBear wrote:
| > Its best to assume that Apple just wants everyone to use a
| single external monitor
|
| It's just a matter of different products having different
| specs. Barring the use of workarounds:
|
| The older Macbook Pro with the plain M1 supports one external
| display.
|
| The newer Macbook Pro with the M1 Pro supports two external
| displays.
|
| The newer Macbook Pro with the M1 Max supports four external
| displays.
| cschep wrote:
| The author just figured it out and shared already, no need to
| figure it out!
| Kalanos wrote:
| it's absurd that a $2K machine is dependent on plastic dongles to
| do basic stuff
| cschep wrote:
| The material they are made of is an interesting thing to call
| out here. Does it offend you that this $2k machine also relies
| on plastic keys on its keyboard?
| Kalanos wrote:
| these ports should be part of the motherboard
| wtallis wrote:
| OP's goal was to connect multiple monitors with one cable,
| so adding more ports would be of little or no use.
| jsjohnst wrote:
| I've had zero issues using two 27" LG 5K monitors with my M1 Max
| (personal) or M1 Pro (work). Expensive setup for sure, but it
| _just works_ and the amount of pixels is just glorious.
| rcarmo wrote:
| I'm plugging my M1 Pro directly into a 38" LG monitor with PD
| (which then has USB out, gigabit Ethernet, audio, etc), which
| saved me a lot of trouble.
|
| (also, what's with the weird, slow CSS transforms?)
| pelagicdev wrote:
| The monitor has an ethernet port or you're using a USB-C
| adapter for that?
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